NOTE: I can't find any real supporting evidence for this story so far, and at any rate, it seems like it may involve simple death threats, not an "official" fatwah. Still pretty scary, though. See the follow-up below for more information.

Via Gullyborg, Chris, who blogs at The AnarchAngel, claims that a fatwah has been issued against him by an Islamic terror group:

A Fatwah has been issued against me by a known terror group. Corresponding groups have responded indicating that I will be eliminated shortly.

They have my name, address, telephone numbers, and the names and addresses of my friends and loved ones.

The FBI has been unable to tell me of any actionable threat, however they beleive that the threat is real. They have warned me to take the standard anti-terrorist precautions, suitable for Bogota or South Africa not Phoenix.

They are also contacting the people on the list that was distributed, including my mother, my stepfather and step siblings, and the people who worked on Team Infidel with me.

The thousands of hits I've been recieving from the JP domains with blocked referred information are anonymizer proxies used to hide the identities of those viewing my site.

As my resume is public information, my employers or former employers may also be targeted. There is concern that staff at my former employers has fed them my personal and private information as well.

The FBI agents I spoke with clearly indicated that althoguh they had nothing direct or specific to an individual (and thus couldnt justify protective custody), they are very seriously concerned about this threat.

Chris says he's been marked for death because of this post, in which he details how he and a couple of his buddies, calling themselves "Team Infidel", took copies of the Koran and variously shot, urinated on, burned, and exploded them. (Video files are available at the post.)

In the video file of a Koran being exploded, Chris comments:

Well, now. Since y'all seem to think it's perfectly acceptable to strap explosives to your body and blow yourself up in pizzarias and schoolbuses, I thought we would do the same thing to your holy book.

Destroying someone else's holy book may be disrespectful, but Chris doesn't seem to think Islam deserves a whole lot of respect these days. And the fact that a gang of Muslims would apparently mark him for death simply for expressing his opinion shows why.

FOLLOW-UP:Chris has posted a response to people who suspect he's making the whole thing up:

Please note, I wasnt contacted or threatened directly. This was not a bluster. No public fatwah announcement was made or press release or vague email or web threats. The FBI wouldnt tell me how they recieved the threat specifically, other than it was from arabic language communications off the internet.

So, we're not exactly looking at a whole lot of supporting evidence here. Chris does link to a critical post on a Muslim-oriented Yahoo! groups message board, but no death threats.

Still, it's not hard to believe that some Muslims would want to kill a guy for disrespecting the Koran. After all, it's happened before.

Archangel has done a fine job of reinforcing the stereotypical image of an American. Fat, overconfident (anyone remember Vietnam?) and M16 or the like in hand. I question the collective total of the IQs of the individuals who smugly posted a picture of themselves. If anyone posts video footage destroying religious material on the internet... well. Someone is bound to be pissed. Hopefully they learn something from the threats received. Learn from your enemies wear balaclavas next time.

There's a campaign of hate against Islam in the west and blogland leads the way.

GB writes: ``Destroying someone else's holy book may be disrespectful, but Chris doesn't seem to think Islam deserves a whole lot of respect these days.And the fact that a gang of Muslims would apparently mark him for death simply for expressing his opinion is undoubtedly a big reason why.''

The vast majority of Muslims are peace-loving, rational people who are as inclined to condemn suicide bombers as they are to be disgusted by "Team Infidels'' provocations.

And there's a problem with GB's logic. Team Imbecile got intimate in its own special way with the Koran BEFORE the alleged threat against it, so it doesn't work to say that's why they lack respect for Islam.

Today's Financial Times argues in its lead editorial that: ``While nobody could have anticipated how badly the US would bungle the occupation, it was perfectly possible to anticipate that huge boost invading Iraq would give to the jihadis, and the strong likelihood it would set of a sectarian war between Sunni and Shia, that now risks sucking Iraq's neighbors into a regional civil war.''

The piece concludes: ``All policy now should be aimed at separating the jihadis from the Muslim mainstream -- the necessary precondition for crushing them.''